What is a ZK Coprocessor?

ZK coprocessors are a new class of blockchain infrastructure that allows smart contract developers to statelessly prove offchain computation over existing on-chain data. One of the biggest bottlenecks for smart contract developers continues to be the prohibitive cost associated with onchain computing. Because every operation is metered for gas, the cost of complex application logic can quickly grow infeasible. ZK has emerged as the flagship solution to this problem by allowing developers to introduce more complex compute to dapps. Its first usage was in ZK rollups to support the same type of compute used on L1, but at greater scale and volume, and it is now being applied within a new class of ZK coprocessors. ZK coprocessors introduce a new design pattern for onchain applications that removes the constraint that computation must be done in a blockchain virtual machine. This enables applications that access more data and operate at a greater scale than was possible before. In its origin

ZK coprocessors are a new class of blockchain infrastructure that allows smart contract developers to statelessly prove offchain computation over existing on-chain data. One of the biggest bottlenecks for smart contract developers continues to be the prohibitive cost associated with onchain computing. Because every operation is metered for gas, the cost of complex application logic can quickly grow infeasible. ZK has emerged as the flagship solution to this problem by allowing developers to introduce more complex compute to dapps. Its first usage was in ZK rollups to support the same type of c